I was saddened to learn that a woman who once worked for me died in December 2021. Based on the public obituary notice, I suspect she died from breast cancer.
I knew she had two daughters and estimated that one was now in college and the other in high school. I sent them the following letter (minor details changed to preserve their privacy).
I am so sorry to hear that your mother died last year. She was a special person.
I first spoke to your mother on the phone in xxxx, when she applied for a job on my sales team. She projected so much life, energy and enthusiasm during our call that I decided to interview her in person – even though she had not worked in technical sales for over 15 years and did not have the technical experience I was looking for.
When I interviewed her in person, her attitude was so impressive, I hired her. She worked on my team for xx years. She was one of the best people I had ever hired during my 25 year career in sales management.
Below is an excerpt from an article I wrote about hiring nonconventional employees a few years ago. “The Mom” I wrote about was your mom:
The Mom was someone I hired for an Inside Sales role after she had taken a decade off of work to raise her kids. She had experience selling software but it was during the late 90’s dot com boom. She was about 20 years older than our typical hire. When I interviewed her, she sold me on her hustle, enthusiasm and how she planned to learn our technology and sales processes. I knew she could sell. She was also extremely competitive and determined to prove herself as not “over the hill”.
The first few months were rough. When she spoke to customers, she was a natural. But her product knowledge and lack of PC skills was brutal. She really struggled with Salesforce, email blasts and trying to sound technical on the phone. About 6 weeks in, I told her, “I need you to calm down and take control. Stop trying to be the technical salesperson and use your communication skills to have a conversation with the prospect about their business. If you get them talking, you will crush this. I hired you because you know how to sell. Now you need to execute. If you cannot, I’m going to let you go before the end of the quarter. “
Well, she crushed it. She learned to use conversation to qualify new prospects and then loop in her Sales Engineer for the technical discussions. She leaned on Sales Ops to develop templates and systems to make email prospecting and Salesforce documentation simpler. Plus she worked her ass off making more calls than anyone else on the team. In her first year, she was the #1 or #2 rep every quarter.
Not only was your mom a great employee, she was a wonderful human being. She was always positive. She gave 100% to whatever she put her mind to. She had personality and kindness and the ability to shrug off all kinds of challenges with a laugh and a smile.
I will carry a small part of her in my memories.
Please accept my sincerest condolences for your loss.
I never met my friend’s daughters, but she spoked about them all the time. I knew about their schools, their achievements, their challenges and their triumphs. Their mother lit up when she spoke about there girls. She adored them and dedicated her life to them.
So it wasn’t a shock when I received a thank you reply for my letter from her daughter. I wasn’t expecting it and it’s unlikely we will ever meet. But I am glad I told her what I thought of her mother and hope it brings both girls some small measure of comfort when they think of her.
When it comes to someone dying, I believe it’s best to say something.